Microsoft Tablet Priced for 'Major Impact' at $499

Microsoft's tablet price has finally been revealed: Earlier today, the Microsoft Store listed the 32-gigabyte Surface RT for $499. The price is "more than the retina-display competitive" and "seems right to make a major impact," writes Brian Barrett at Gizmodo, at $100 less than the retina-display iPad. If you want a covering keyboard, however, you'll have to shell out $100 extra; there's also a 64GB model for $599 sans keyboard.

The gadget will hit stores October 26 and is available for preorder today. The prices are for the Surface with the Windows RT operating system. Another version, the Windows Surface, will be more akin to the full PC experience, but its price hasn't yet been announced. The RT tablet weighs 1.5 pounds, notes the Verge; we've got more details here. Reuters reports that rival Apple, perhaps aiming to steal a little Surface thunder, today announced a special event for October 23—rumored to be the launch of the mini iPad. (More Microsoft stories.)